On July 28, 2017, the Carleton Section of the MER-RSM voted unanimously to expel a member who had sexually harassed and assaulted another member of the organization. In order to protect the survivor and at their request, the name of the expelled member will not be mentioned here but organizations and individuals who may come into contact with the perpetrator will be notified. With the perpetrator’s expulsion, all Carleton RSM members have voted to break ties with the perpetrator, both personal and political. This decision extends to all members of the MER-RSM who are being notified about this.

The sexual assault case was initially brought up to Dimka, current chair of the Coordinating Committee (CoCo), in December 2016. Investigation began between Dimka and the perpetrator through private discussions. However, additional incidents of sexual harassment, predatory behavior, and assault became evident and proved that the perpetrator was all-together unable to self-criticize, unable to uphold proletarian feminism, and unable to uphold the mandate of the MER-RSM. Unfortunately, correct action was not taken until July 2017 when the case was brought up to the rest of the CoCo.

Although Dimka and Carleton leadership initially attempted to address the situation, the approach was ad hoc and subjective. It failed to engage the section and organizational leadership (the CoCo) in rectification and as a result both Dimka and the perpetrator’s actions were not held into account. It also failed to protect and inform new and existing members who were in contact with the perpetrator. Dimka has since self-criticized for his errors both to the CoCo and the Carleton section. To ensure this failure in protecting comrades and upholding MER-RSM’s political line is not repeated, he is undergoing a process of rectification. His task in rectification is to correct his understanding of sexual violence, consent, patriarchal behavior and the proper way of addressing sexual violence and predatory behavior within our organization. His rectification plan, along with a self-criticism will be made available to all members of the MER-RSM soon.

On behalf of the CoCo, we would also like to present a self-criticism of our handling of this incident by outlining what should have happened.

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Presentation of the incident to the CoCo as soon as soon it was discovered in December with investigation and subsequent action.

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Presentation of the case to a general meeting of the Carleton section, instead of exclusively presenting to the section’s leadership. This process would have made it possible to make the perpetrator accountable for his actions by the entire section.

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Expulsion and then engagement in rectification outside of the organization in order to protect comrades and those we struggle with and for.

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We take this failure seriously and will work to ensure no member of the coordinating committee will repeat Dimka’s errors. And in accordance with the MER-RSM’s 2017 Congress resolutions, the CoCo is working towards formalizing investigation and rectification processes through the Transformative Justice Committee.

We apologize to the survivor and to all members of the MER-RSM whose safety was put at risk because of the continued membership of the perpetrator so long after his actions were exposed. As a leadership body in the organization it is the duty of the CoCo to ensure that the actions of all members live up to our commitment to proletarian feminist politics. By failing to act accordingly we failed our gender oppressed comrades. It is our task to ensure that members are not subject to sexual violence and that support will always be there.